Unlocking the Potential of Intermediary Cities for Regional Development

Annex E. Self-assessment and action planning template for municipalities

This template is designed to help municipalities record and share their results with other municipalities in their functional urban area (FUA), regional and national governments in a clear and structured way.

Box A E.1. Intermediary Cities Pilot Policy Toolkit: Self-Assessment and Action Planning Template

Municipality name / FUA name:

Part 1: Contextualising your city

Please complete the following by selecting the option(s) that best describe your city.

Your city type, based on the strength among eight key functions:

□ Knowledge Hub; □ Service hub; □ Housing hub; □ Cultural hub; □ Self-contained Employment hub

Your city’s geographical context:

□ Close (close to the large city); □ Remote (remote from the large city)

Your country’s institutional context:

State structure: □ Federal; □ Unitary

Number of subnational levels: □ 1; □ 2; □ 3

Degree of fiscal decentralisation: □ High; □ Medium; □ Low

Part 2: Assess intermediary city’s policies with the checklists

Individual assessment (by each municipality): After completing review in Part 2, please summarise your key findings below.

Strength: What are the key strengths of your city?

 

 

Weakness: What are the key areas for improvement?

 

 

Joint assessment (FUA-level discussion): After discussing results with other municipalities in your functional urban area (FUA), please summarise your key findings below.

Shared strength: What are the main strengths across the FUA?

 

 

Shared challenges: What are the key shared challenges affecting the FUA?

 

 

Opportunities for joint action: What are the key opportunities for joint action within the FUA?

 

 

Dialogue with the regional/ national governments (FUA-level discussion): After discussing results with your regional and/or national governments, please summarise your key findings below.

Feedback: What feedback did you receive from regional or national authorities? Any considerations for effective co-ordination across governments (local-regional-national alignment):

 

 

Key constraints: What regulatory, financial, or institutional barriers require higher-level support?

 

 

Support opportunities: What are opportunities for targeted support in areas needing improvement (e.g. funding programmes, technical assistance, or policy reforms)?

 

 

Part 3: Learn from inspirational policy examples in other intermediary cities

Vision: What type of city do you want to become in the future?

 

 

Gaps: Based on your current situation (Part 1) and improvement opportunities identified (Part 2), which functions or elements need to be strengthened to reach your vision?

 

 

Inspiration: Which inspirational policy examples in Part 3 can be helpful to strengthen those functions and elements? Feel free to add policy examples other than those listed in part 3, in case you identify.

 

 

Priorities: What are the main actions needed at the FUA-level to narrow the gap mentioned above?

 

 

Part 4: Develop refined policies and actions plans

Action planning: For each priority identified above, create concrete action plan by filling in the table below:

 

Ref	Priority	Actions required	Timeline	Responsibility	Key partners	Budget	Status
1
2
3
4
…

Mainstreaming: What are the opportunities and processes for integrating the action plan into strategic and programming documents?

 

 

Monitoring: What monitoring, review and feedback mechanisms can support the effective implementation and iterative adaptation of your action plan?

 

 

Please add additional remarks or reflections if any: